Project Manager

Overview of HELVETAS and the Project

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation is an independent development organization based in Switzerland and it has been operating for the last 65 years worldwide. HELVETAS is registered in Ethiopia as foreign organization with the Agency for Civil Society Organization to operate in the areas of Rural Infrastructure, Natural Resource Management, Support to CSO and Local Governments, Skill Development & Education and Emergency Response. See also. www.helvetas.org.

Under its Rural Infrastructure thematic area ‘Enabling the Environment for Transformative Connectivity in Rural Ethiopia’ project (hereinafter called “the project”) aims to start building the enabling environment to meet the full need for rural transport connectivity and in that process, provide transformative access to critical services in the coming three years in Amhara, Oromia, Sidma, SNNPR, Somali and south west Ethiopia regions. The project plan is to attain its objective through designing and testing the construction ecosystem by building trail bridges and improving feeder trails, create long-term capacity for national scale in government roads authorities, private sector, and supply chain & capture impact through focused evaluation and disseminate learnings to build global awareness.

The position holder and her/his team will be based in Bahr-Dar and all teams are provided guidance and strategic direction by the National Program Team in Addis Ababa.

Job Purposes

The position holder provides leadership with regards to programmatic, operational, administrative, and financial implementation of the project in selected regions. S/he provides leadership to the PMU (project management unity). S/he would lead the preparation the Annual Plan of Operation and ensure its implementation and reporting along the principles of project cycle management, gender transformation and market system development. The position holder would facilitate and coordinate with stakeholders and partners (government, universities, privet actors and others) and advocate for upscaling of strategies and approaches of the project. In particular, S/He would work closely with the Regions, Universities and TVET, Privet construction consulting and designing firms and other stakeholder to building the enabling environment to meet the full need for rural transport connectivity and provide transformative access to critical services. The post holder has an overall responsibility to ensure the proper execution of the project and achieve concrete progress on the attainment of its goal and objectives, outcomes and outputs and assumes all responsibility for all programmatic progress and HR related matters of the project team as well as partnership issues, including providing technical and methodological support is provided to partners and continuous monitoring, learning and reporting takes place in the project.

Duties and Responsibilities 

Main task

Head of Project Management team for assigned regions

• Heads the Project Management in line with the Annual Plan of Operation and along the principles of Helvetas and project cycle management;
• Prepare consolidated Annual Plan of Operation (APO) for the assigned regions;
• Supervises, leads, guides, orients, trains, coaches, and supports the project staff to effectively lead and manage the project;
• Builds the technical and managerial capacity of the project staff in planning and implementing projects effectively and efficiently;
• Assume responsibility for all HR related matters of the project team, including recruitment, work planning and performance management and review;
• Ensure the project is implemented in the region in line with the Program Document;
• Ensure that the program team is informed about the project progress and any special, important matters;
• Collaborate and support to the other regional project teams;
• Provides coordination and technical support to the Project team and other relevant governmental departments at woreda and regional level;
• Represents HELVETAS Ethiopia in the implementation of the project in operational areas of the assigned regions.

Coordination and Technical assistance to partners

• Enhance partnership with key government partners and stakeholders in assigned regions;
• Ensure that the collaboration among the project partners (both GO and NGO) functions well and project implementation is in line with the Annual plan of operation;
• Ensure that the partners enjoy technical assistant in the designated technical fields;
• Ensure effective coordination and collaboration amongst the partners (both GO and NGO) in the project area; Woreda, Zonal and Regional Road team;

• Facilitate and coordinate with the regional road team for the implementation of the tasks assigned to regional road bureau as partner in the project along the principles of project cycle management and the elaborated APO.

Budget Management

• Prepares annual budget for the assigned regions based on regional proposal and ensures compliance with donor requirements;
• Monitor monthly budget burn rates and make timely adjustment when needed in consultation with national program coordinator;
• Ensure timely financial reporting is done and shared with concerned body;
• Oversees contracting and agreements.

Knowledge management

• Ensure Monitoring, Learning, Reporting and Documentation of the project in the assigned regions;
• Ensure that experiences and lessons learnt out of the project are well documented;
• Effectively contribute to thematic and policy activities of the organization;
• Ensure that project information is up-to-date and internally and externally disseminated;
• Contributes as member of HELVETAS Ethiopia to the organization’s learning in Rural Access and WASH Learning and Innovation working area.

Education

• Master’s degree in development, Project management, with specialization in Engineering and/or or any other discipline relevant to rural connectivity and access.

Experience

• At least 10 years’ relevant experience in development work in an NGO setting, at least with 4 years of which is at a project manager level. Commitment to gender transformation and working experience in rural road sector.
• Prior experience as a project manager or leading large project teams is a necessary requirement.
• Fluent in spoken and written English is required.
• Flexible, capable of working independently, high integrity, and hard-working.

Skills Required

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency in standard office software packages and GIS.
• Demonstrated leadership ability to inspire and empower others.
• Demonstrated technical and managerial ability, sound judgment, ability to interact and work effectively with others at all levels.